Re: Devcon Buys Out Coastal Security, Adelphia, & Guardian

["R.H.Campbell" <rh.campbell@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Quite true Bob ! Blanket statements ARE generalizations, and generalizations
are just that - general statements that don't tell the whole story story all
the time. But I see so many instances where the misuse of long term
contracts causes unnecessary grief and expense to clients that IMO they
totally overshadow the few legitimate uses. I'm glad that you can turn this
industry trend to your customer's advantage, but one (or even a few)
examples does not mitigate the harm done in the other cases. Nothing in life
is totally good or totally bad ! But when all is put on the "scales of
justice" (so to speak), in judging this industry practice, it comes out
(almost) totally loaded against the end user.

I think what bothers me most about this personally, is the fact that the end
user (generally) gets nothing in return for giving up his right to choose
for a number of years. The biggest mystery to me is why the public lets us
get away with it, with rarely a peep about it until something goes wrong.
And THAT is why it will continue unabated ! I sometimes think if ADT and
other nationals didn't have long term contracts to hide behind, their
companies would largely fall apart !!!!!

We're not the only industry that does it either. I just had to send a
registered letter to Ontario Energy telling them I didn't want to opt into
their contractual rate plan for the pricing of natural gas. I had to take
action to prevent being locked into a year long contract if I did nothing
within 30 days - this after I refused their high pressure tactics to lock
into a five year contract ! This is far worse than what happens in our
industry. There the consumer has no choice, and will be bound into a
contract unless he takes positive action. At least in our industry, the
consumer has a full choice about things generally speaking....

I'm going to see what the BBB has to say about this "negative option
marketing" of natural gas !

RHC

"Bob La Londe" <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:iqudnaslotCaMBveRVn-qw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> "R.H.Campbell" <rh.campbell@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:G8-dnS5ojos3EBneRVn-pg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Damn ! You make so much sense in this post, it's actually scary. And here
>> I thought the newsgroup was going to hell in a handbasket !! I thought I
>> was the only one on the ng that thought that way about the "free systems"
>> and especially about long term contracts when they aren't needed to pay
>> off artificially low up front system prices.
>
> There are times...  I have one customer who is paying 113.87 per month on
> a five year annually auto renewing after initial term contract, and he is
> thrilled with it.  He also has two other systems with me, and is asking me
> to lay one out for a fourth site for him soon, and yes he has had alarms
> installed in other markets by other companies so he's not an
> unsophisticated customer.
>
> There are some other circumstances of course, so blanket statements don't
> make sense from either end of the spectrum.
>
> --
> Bob La Londe
> http://www.YumaBassMan.com
>
>
>


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